Sixth grade boys caught texting in class

[Disney Doll]

Frankly, I think that the parenst thinking in any way, shape or form that they should be sueing the principal for looking at their children's phoe is the reason our kids to day are such screwballs.

Are you kidding me? Your kid was doing something clearlh against the school's rules and you think you have the right to sue the Principal for looking on their phone?

Ridiculous.

 

[southern_redhead]

Some.

If my 10th grader got busted texting in school, I wouldn't waste a minute of my time listening to her complain about the principal reading her texts. I would too busy figuring out how to punish her.

Me, too!

And, giving schools carte-blanche to go thru the stuff in a private cell phone is no less that SCARY!!!!!

They can search lockers and bookbags, why shouldn't they search cellphones?

Doesn't she have anything better to do with her time than read a bunch of 6th grade texts calling her a " donkey" or whatever else they called her?

That is what I would be asking her.

I have a feeling the principal was trying to nail down the other two offenders, I doubt she cared what the child was texting to other people. For the record, I see nothing wrong with punishing them for disrespectful things they said about the principal. If they'd posted them on Facebook and someone printed it and brought it in to her I'd think she should punish them.

Older kids tend to remove their batteries before handing their phones over to teachers.

I think that sounds disrespectful. At the very least, it sounds flippant.

I work in a middle school and see this every day - yes every day! In our district the principal has a little discretion on how their school's cell phone policy is written and enforced. During the day the phone should be inside the child's locker. It can only be used after school has been dismissed.

If a child is found with a cell phone during the day they are confiscated and are only returned to a parent/guardian. We do keep a log which has to be signed by the parent picking it up. On the 4th time a phone is taken from the same time it is kept until the end of the school year. This policy is in the student handbook and at the beginning of the year the parents must sign a form stating they (and the child) understand the policy and it is kept on file.

If a child is caught mid-text the teacher/principal will read that text. If there is language/content in that text that is disturbing or against school policy the parent is called immediately and is asked to come to the school and they along with the parent will look at the rest of the messages and take appropriate action. Usually referral to the guidance office it one of the actions, but punishment is also used if the content warrants it.

Just to show how bad this can get, last year we had one boy who was going into the restroom and using his phone to take pictures of his genitals. He was then texting those pictures to several girls in his class. The teacher found out when one of the girls gasped when she saw the picture. No one would fess up to sending the picture so the teacher used her class phone to call the number and of course the boy did not have his ringer turned off and his phone rang. Would you want your daughter seeing that????? I don't think so! Plus these were 6th graders.

This is an extreme case, but the sad part was when all parents were called to the school each phone was searched by parents/principal together and photos some of the girls had sent to the boy were found. Very explicit pictures - taken in the school restroom. Very very sad these children felt this was okay to do - innocence lost.

I have instructed my DD (who is in high school) to keep her cell locked in her car. If she needs me the office will let her call me - as they will any other student. She has no need for the cell during school hours. I know the school I work at will let kids use the office phone if they have a valid reason - sick, injured, need lunch money, etc... What can't wait until after school to use their cell - nothing...

Wow, that is disturbing!

My son is in a middle school and phones are banned there. Turned off or not. They can, however, bring their phone and leave it in the office to be picked up after school (so no parent can complain that little Johnny had football practice and must stay without his cellphone to contact mom or dad.) If you are caught with a phone you get a day of in school suspension and the phone is kept until the end of the day. They do not notify parents - I wish they would.

My son once forgot his was in his pocket. He found it, told the teacher and she let him call me to come pick it up. The vice principal went out of his way to tell DS how responsible that was, they have lots of kids breaking that rule. He said he was glad someone was finally following it.

Maybe it is because I do read my son's texts every once in a while but I wouldn't care if a teacher or principal read his texts. My having access to them was our agreement, it is how I know he is behaving appropriately. I know how many texts he sends due to our itemization on the bill, so erasing them will only land him in trouble. He knows better than to send something like that so he also knows he would be in hot water if it were found by anyone. And, for the record, he doesn't have LIKE any teacher or administrator but he does have to follow their rules and treat them with respect due an elder. Even one who isn't returning the kindness. One of my bosses is VERY disrespectful to us but I am still respectful to her, she is my boss. It's easier to learn it now, as a child, than to go through life thinking you can be respectful to who you want, when you want and then wonder why you keep losing jobs and no one likes you.

 

[luvmy3]

responses in red

They can search lockers and bookbags, why shouldn't they search cellphones?


They can search for things like drugs and weapons with probable cause. I'm not aware they can just go around searching a locker just because a kid gets caught doing something wrong (other than illegal activity). What probable cause does one have to search through texts when the student has already been caught texting? Last I knew texting wasn't an illegal activity, the students were punished for what they did, it should have ended there.

I have a feeling the principal was trying to nail down the other two offenders, I doubt she cared what the child was texting to other people. For the record, I see nothing wrong with punishing them for disrespectful things they said about the principal. If they'd posted them on Facebook and someone printed it and brought it in to her I'd think she should punish them.

I so disgagree with that. Unless what the student said was directed directly to the principal then there should be no punishment for something being said about him/her. Students should be allowed to express their opinions to their friends on FB without worrying about getting in trouble at school for it. (Death threats aside of course )


I think that sounds disrespectful. At the very least, it sounds flippant.

So, its disrespectful to remove the battery, but its not disrespectful for a teacher to read through a student's texts? I don't believe that just because we are talking about kids that they don't deserve the some respect of their privacy. What if there are texts on there that are a very personal nature, why does the teacher have the right to look at them because they are in possession of that phone. Oh no, not my kid's texts, and i have to thank the pp who mentioned it because I'm going to tell my dd to do the same if she is ever gets her phone taken away. I don't care about the phone and any other punishement that is deserved but I draw the line at invading my child's privacy.

 

[hereyago]

In DD"s step Mom to be's school-she is a teacher: they will do random lockers searches, drug dog searches in the parking lot, all cars will have the dog sniff, even the ones that are teachers. If someone has even cigarettes in the viewing part of their car, they will find out who's car it is to make sure that person is old enough to buy them.


Life is very simple and some people just don't get it: if you don't want the phone to be taken away don't be using it class. Your kids have privacy rights, only in the aspect of no one can get info about their school records, however if your kid is dumb enough to whip it out in class, then they don't deserve any privacy.

 

[desertgirl]

Life is very simple and some people just don't get it: if you don't want the phone to be taken away don't be using it class. QUOTE]



This one statement sums it up for me! If you just follow the rules in the first place, nobody will be reading anything of yours.

 

[RockAndRollBallerina]

Life is very simple and some people just don't get it: if you don't want the phone to be taken away don't be using it class. Your kids have privacy rights, only in the aspect of no one can get info about their school records, however if your kid is dumb enough to whip it out in class, then they don't deserve any privacy.

This

 

[libgirl1]

these parents would probably also get a lawyer if the principal didn't read the texts and they weren't alerted of the activity...damned if you do...damned if you don't. Kids need to be help accountable for their actions these days. As a society, we have allowed our kids to negotiate with us more and more about the smallest of things. I know I did not grow up like this.

 

[Mkrop]

In DD"s step Mom to be's school-she is a teacher: they will do random lockers searches, drug dog searches in the parking lot, all cars will have the dog sniff, even the ones that are teachers. If someone has even cigarettes in the viewing part of their car, they will find out who's car it is to make sure that person is old enough to buy them.


Life is very simple and some people just don't get it: if you don't want the phone to be taken away don't be using it class. Your kids have privacy rights, only in the aspect of no one can get info about their school records, however if your kid is dumb enough to whip it out in class, then they don't deserve any privacy.

Yep you can have whatever you want on the texts but then keep the phone where it belongs, locker, backpack wherever while at school. Follow the rules and you will have no issues!

 

[MrsHerbie53]

Actually what is being texted is the school's business. Texting is used to cheat on tests, to harass other students, to set up drug buys, to warn students of administration in the halls so they can avoid them while skipping. Good reason for the principal to check the texts. A text made during state testing can invalidate an entire school's tests, requiring they be retested.

Now days the teacher has a phone in the classroom so there is no reason for a student to have a cell phone in class. They can ask the teacher if they need to call home. Or they can go to the office. I know ours has a phone on the front counter students can use to call a parent.

and

I work in a public school & we just had an inservice last week about bullying & cyberbullying/sexting. Cell phones are NOT allowed in class in our school district and they are not allowed to be turned on or taken out of their lockers until school is over. If a student is caught with their cell phone, it will be taken away and parents have to come and get the phones themselves at the end of the day.

The people who led the inservice said that, in our state, it has been ruled lawfully that cell phones in school are like backpacks and administration has every legal right to go through them, if they are confiscated and if administration is suspecting that the student is using it to break school rules (whether that be to cheat on a test, bully someone, text during class, etc...)

These are why most schools have the rules they have. And if they don't, their legal counsel will be pushing them to implement it soon. I was a high school coach and we followed thru with the school policies at practice and on the bus going to away matches. My biggest fear was the sexting / bullying happening on my watch. We knew a player had done it in the past out of season and it was one we NEVER would have expected. They are KIDS, that's how it is. They learned the rules quickly. A phone rings or vibrates during practice = everybody runs more. They policed themselves at that point. But the bus was always a problem because we would allow music devices and many phones do this now. But if they were caught on the phone or texting = trouble. We allowed them to call for rides within 10 minutes of returning to school. It worked well.

My DS is in 6th grade and has a phone. He only has limited minutes of talking only. He keeps it off and in his backpack only to turn it on to be picked up after his activity. No after school activity and he lets it at home. I would actually prefer he take it with him everyday and keep in his backpack for his own safety, but we'll get to that soon enough. If kids are caught with them in their pocket because they forgot, I think there should be a lesser sentence than being caught using them...

He knows I reserve the right to read everything and that would include texts if he was allowed to do that.

There is NO REASON to text at school. NONE! If they have to contact a parent for something, the school should allow that. If not, then you have a much bigger problem.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I have no problem with what the principal did. She had probable cause to review his texting history for the school day.

We can hash out all the scenarios of how she might have looked at his texts from last weekend, but it truly is irrelevant as it cannot be proven that the principal looked beyond the immediate history.

The fact is, they texted during class and got caught and the evidence of all who were texting was right on that 6th graders phone.

To compare it to a traffic stop--that's like saying, but officer, the coke was only on the seat--but you can't search my trunk.

Once there is probably cause, it is all fare game. It would be a waste of the courts time for the parents to pursue this as all other types of searches on school property have been upheld in the courts.

Better the boys learn now that a rule that disallows something should be followed.

The story reads that they more so got in trouble for texting and not for what they texted.


As for the workplace--some workplace environments pay for the cell phone, so while I don't text my husband anything warranting him getting in trouble, I do keep that in my mind regarding his cell phone.

At my prior employer, someone engaged in inappropriate conduct on company e-mail. It was caught when one employee left for lunch (unannounced) when a report was due. But her boss could not work on it b/c she had it open on her computer. When he went to her computer to close it, her e-mail was wide open with the inappropriate conduct visible (and it was about him). He printed it and took it to HIS boss and just placed it before her on her desk and did nothing further. Her e-mails were searched and she was subsequently terminated.

We are all entitled to some level of privacy. But for children in school, it is limited and for employees in the workplace--it is guarded when it comes to using company resources on company time.


Think before you put it into electronic format!

 

[mrodgers]

I can't imagine getting my kids their own phones that young, so they'd have one of ours. I am not down with the school reading my emails/texts/facebook/twitter/menstrual cycle tracker/amazon account/netflix/etc.

As I read the thread, one thought was going through my mind about the school reading texts and such. This was it (well, not the menstrual cycle tracker since I'd better never have a menstrual cycle, hehehe.)

Not everyone who's child has a cell phone on them has the money the equivalent to a car payment nowadays for a family worth of phones. We have 1 phone, it's a tracfone, but eventually I will probably have a real phone at some time. I have it at work because I am never at the same landline phone all day and my wife can contact me. My daughter is starting to play sports and the times that I am not going to be sitting at her practices, I give her the phone. Currently she comes home and I take her later to practice and stay and watch. The days my wife drops her off on the way to work and I pick her up later, she has the phone in her gym bag.

Now since currently it is a 'go home and come back later' thing, she wouldn't have the phone during school session, but in the future perhaps she would. If she used that phone during school, the discipline is fine, but the school going through the phone would not be. It is not her phone to be using (more discipline would result for just using the phone) and majority of what was on that phone would not be from my daughter, thus there would be no reason for the school to look at my stuff on the phone.

There could be anything from parent's emails/texts to as the quote says, menstrual cycle tracker on the phone. There could be financial data, medical data, private family stuff on that phone. There's no telling what is on that phone that the school is looking at, and no way of knowing whether that phone is the child's phone or the family's phone.

The child breaking the rules is certainly subject to discipline and confiscation of the property, but entering that property is off limits.

In my opinion on the locker/bookbag search comparison, lockers are school property and bookbags are a function of school. They are subject to searches sure. A child carrying a cell phone is not school property nor a function of school, which is why the confiscation is fine and searching it is not.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I think the principal was most likely checking to see if they could have possibly been passing answers around. That is perfectly acceptable.

 

[wvjules]

Skipping to the end...

The boy that got caught should be punished for using his cell phone while in school. However, IMO, the principal had no right to go through the texts. Somehow I see it different than passing paper notes and see it as an invasion of privacy. I would not call a lawyer but I would be upset, at the child for breaking school rules and at the pricinpal for going through said child's phone. That doesn't mean the child shouldn't be punished and is to blame for what happened though.

 

[hereyago]

What is hilarious to me is the possibly talking to the Sup. and possibly a lawyer

Let's see your kid is using a cellphone which isn't allowed during school, but he got caught BOO HOO, turns out your sweet little angel was texting about the principal, like really he couldn't wait until after school? He did something wrong, however, you are worried about his privacy rights?

Somehow I don't recall parents back in the day if kids got caught passing notes that this would even be a blip on their I am might call a lawyer radar. You got caught, end of story.


Texting is just modern day passing notes as others have said.

 

[plutotek]

Unless the principal has gone completely off the reservation, she did nothing wrong because she was presumably acting within the parameters established by state/local authorities, as well as the school district. If a parent has an issue with the principal's actions, taking it up w/the powers that granted her that authority is the proper course of action.

 

[xJenna]

Read through a majority of this. The boys should be punished by parents for texting in class and also making rude comments about the principal. However, the principal should not have read the texts unless it is clearly stated to the parents that it is part of the consequence, then the parents would have no right to complain.

Also for those saying that he is too young and he shouldn't have it in class, it's the age we live in. Simple as that. It could have to do with his home situation (single mom, parents work long hours, etc) or maybe the parents want to be able to have constant contact with their child. Whatever the reason, most children have cellphones at younger ages. I'm a freshman in college and I refuse to go anywhere without my phone, not because I need to text people during class, just because I need it to feel safe. My generation is the first to go though school with texting and just like all other trends schools are forming rules on how to deal/prevent it. I know I would be more than livid if someone took my phone and read my text messages at any age. But hey, maybe that's just me.

 

[Pigeon]

If the little darlings don't want their texts read, they shouldn't have their phones out in class.

I'm usually against most of the typical school administrator invasions of student privacy, but this seems pretty clear cut to me. Kids can and do use their phones to cheat all the time.

 

[kamik86]

I agree that the parents have a right to be upset.

Did the teacher ONLY read the texts they sent while in school? Because a cell phone has texts from other places her scrolling through the texts would really be like the teacher not only taking and reading the note you passed in class but the ones your mom puts on the fridge when you get home. Those could have private information for/about/from the parents that the teacher has absolutely no right to be looking at.

I agree that the children need to be punished for what they did and would let the school handle that accordingly as well as probably having my child lose some phone privledges (what depends on what the phone is used for and if the parents need the child to have them for some reason) but I would be talking to the superintendent about the principal's actions as well. Just because the kids were wrong doesn't make what the principal did right, just like what the principal did wrong didn't make what the kids did right.

 

[goofy!]

Also for those saying that he is too young and he shouldn't have it in class, it's the age we live in. Simple as that. It could have to do with his home situation (single mom, parents work long hours, etc) or maybe the parents want to be able to have constant contact with their child. Whatever the reason, most children have cellphones at younger ages.

(bolding mine)

I work in a Title1 kindergarten. Most of the kids in the school are on Free and Reduced lunch.

Yet 2 of the 15 kindergartners in the class I work in have working, activated Verizon phones.

It is definitely due to their family situation and I can fully understand why the mothers want to be able to get in touch with their children.

 

[ccgirl]

A friend of mine told me about a situation that happened a few days ago at our local elementary school, and I thought it would be interesting to get your opinions.

Here's what happened: 3 sixth grade boys were texting on their cellphones during school hours. One of the boys got caught "mid-text" and got his phone taken away by the teacher, who then gave the phone to the principal.

The principal apparently scrolled through the texts and found out that these 3 boys had been texting back and forth about her (the principal) during school hours and had been calling her some very DIS-unfriendly names. The boys parents were called into school, and the kids are receiving some sort of school punishment.

Well, the parents of these 3 boys were discussing the situation on the playground after school, and they said that although they know their kids shouldn't haven been texting in school they are upset that the principal read the texts. They say she had no right to go through the phone, and that she violated the boys' rights. There was even talk of calling the superintendent of schools and a lawyer.

What do you think about this situation?

This is what drives me NUTS these days.

Family member was caught smoking weed at school on camera. Parents were upset because said his rights were violated by videotaping.

Parents....have your kids stick to the rules so they don't get in trouble. If they don't, let them get in trouble and learn their lesson. I remember passing notes when I was younger. If the note was found, it was read aloud to the class - very embarassing then you received detention.

At my DD's school they aren't allowed to have a cell phone at all. As they come in to school they are to give it to the school secretary. They can get it at the end of the day. No need, whatsoever, for students to have their cell phones with them at school. I don't agree it's the age we live in at all. If a parent needs to get ahold of their child, they call the secretary who will get the child out of class. Never can the child bring the phone to class.

I also disagree reading the texts is like reading a note on your fridge at home. If that note was brought in and passed around the class, that would be fair game too.

Better for them to learn now that texts and emails are not considered private forms of communication. Look at the idiots losing their jobs because they post idiotic things on facebook.